1. Web site design: 00:00

After seeing the quotation from the web design firm my mom's thinking
of using, I have gotten sufficiently annoyed about the current design.
I will apply my one-hour hacking challenge to
http://www.adphoto.com.ph tomorrow. That is, in one hour, I will try
to whiz through as many improvements as possible.

It's been enough time that I've forgotten what their design looked
like. I'll sit down tomorrow and hack up something small and simple.
Neat. No frills. Clean and elegant, though, and search-friendly. It
won't get picked up by the search engines right away, but I'll see
what I can do about that also.

If they think the design resembles theirs too much, I can modify it.
<shrug> Still, better to have code I understand than autogen
code I don't.

Some insights:

- Websites can be tweaked over time, just like software. I can improve

it incrementally. I should think of it like planner.

- I wanted a professional design firm because I wanted a real

copywriter to go over the stuff. I don't want people to just
copy-and-paste blocks of text from the company profile.

- I also wanted someone to do the initial implementation so that I can

just do maintenance, which I enjoy. If I'm sufficiently annoyed,
though, I can just evolve the site. One of the most effective ways
to get me to do something is to make me annoyed enough with the
current situation.

2. Emacs on Mac OS X: 06:41

using Emacs on Macosx myself, I can tell you that emacs 21.2.1 comes
with macosx. If you want a more recent version, you can just checkout
the CVS-Emacs and cd mac; ./make-package --self-contained to get an
installable macosx-app that plays nice with planner.

btw.: a .dmg file is mounted by double-clicking it ;-)

Ooooh, nifty. I wonder if it comes with pretty widgets. I want my mom
to have a menubar right away. <grin>

6. One-hour hacks: 23:16

Do tell me what happened with your web development company. At the
moment, I'm wondering what caused you to initiate your one-hour hack.

Just Because I Can. <impish grin> Never underestimate an annoyed
geekette with a block of free time.

Seriously, keeping track of how much time it takes me to actually
implement things... Wow. Thanks to
../emacs/dev/planner/planner-timeclock.el, I can tell you how long
something took to implement. That's given me a newfound appreciation
for lunch hour and (formerly) free time. Lunch hour is another new
planner feature, or a new website look, or a few new discoveries on
the Net.

I don't think we'll be needing the web dev company any more. I think
that at this point we aren't likely to see significant improvements
with professional design, given that the company isn't into
copywriting. I would've greatly appreciated the services of a real
copywriter who can, say, review our documents and write for the web,
but the web firms in the Philippines don't offer this as a service. I
suppose I'll just have to trust my senses when it comes to the Net.
The current Adphoto website is still
too marketing-fluffy for my tastes, but I can tweak that when I get
better ideas.

7. Reflections on what I value: 23:36

technology. I want to help people develop a sense of control over
their computers. I want them to be able to have fun while
programming, to see the creative side of technology. I also enjoy
exploring new ways of teaching, and I want to be able to experiment
with lots of techniques while adapting to individual differences.

- I love learning. I want to keep computer science fresh in my mind. I

also like exploring new technologies. I like playing around with
ideas, keeping a rough index in my head of things that may be useful
to other people.

- I want freedom. I want to be able to learn whatever I want to. I

want to work on projects of my own choosing and teach lessons I want
to teach. I want to be able to take off in the middle of the week
for a conference or a meeting.

- I love presenting ideas, tools. I want to present to and receive

ideas from as many people as possible in as many places as possible.

- I like writing. I want to write about new technologies and new ways

of working, turning the spotlight on past work and contributing new
knowledge to the world.

- I love working on open source.

This will be followed by a long reflection on teaching and other
options tomorrow.

I'd love to hear about any questions, comments, suggestions or links that you might have. Your comments will not be posted on this website immediately, but will be e-mailed to me first. You can use this form to get in touch with me, or e-mail me at [email protected] .

Page: 2004.12.02

Updated: 2005-06-1812:17:1212:17:12-0400

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